New to Market

NEW TO THE MARKET: 18-22 FEBRUARY 2019

• Renewable energy staffing specialist Cathcart Energy has launched an office in Copenhagen. Nanna Bendixen has also been appointed as a new consultant, taking over responsibility of the company’s existing accounts in Denmark, and will lead the team in adding new clients to their growing portfolio.

• Online recruitment referral platform Real Links has launched. The platform provides employee-generated referrals by tapping into the social and professional network connections of existing employees.

Start-up of the Month: TT Tech Solutions

Thakrar, who previously headed up the technology and financial systems division at former Apprentice winner Ricky Martin’s recruitment business Hyper Recruitment Solutions, told Recruiter working with Lord Sugar and Martin had given her the confidence to launch her own business.

“My network, my background, my eight years in recruitment have really given me a solid reputation in the space I recruit within.”

Looking ahead, Thakrar added she was uncertain whether she would seek external investment to aid expansion of her Thurrock-based business.

“I think I can call on my own savings to make sure I can keep all of the business, but I want it to grow so I would [look again] this time next year. I would love us to be based in London, somewhere in the Liverpool Street area… and have a solid team of about 10.

“We’re not massive but I really want to partner with organisations – to be an arm of their business. I want us to be onsite if we can at places and at organisations, and try and work with brands that are where we are – small brands that are growing, expanding and who really want to make a name for themselves in their markets as well.”

12 February 2019

Joining the dots: Exploiting big data to find talent

Video-interviewing, gamification, artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics are all changing the face of recruiting. The HireVue recruitment platform, previously best known for video-interviewing, acquired predictive hiring and talent analytics platform MindX last year and is one of the first platforms to unite these technologies. So how are they combining to help recruiters make better hires?

Really big data

The value of big data has been espoused for many years but it is only now that its true magnitude is being fully exploited in recruitment, with platforms having had several years to collect and analyse information. HireVue draws on data from more than 9m on-demand interviews and is on track to collect them at a rate of 4m interviews per year. It also holds large amounts of data on gameplay behaviour and performance. It has used this as the backbone for a platform that uses AI to identify the definitive traits in top performers. Candidates can then be assessed against these through their own gameplay and video interview, which are undertaken on the same platform.

Predictive hiring

The game-based challenges are designed to evaluate cognitive traits such as problem-solving, mental flexibility, learning agility, attention span, creativity and quantitative aptitude. The platform can be customised but HireVue has recently launched pre-built assessments for specific roles and job-related competencies. Currently, they are available for call centre service representatives, sales reps, retail associates and software developers, and feature a combination of video questions, games-based challenges and coding challenges for technical roles. “We aim to predict whether a person will have the right cognitive ability and thinking style to learn and adapt in a role,” explains Dr Nathan Mondragon, chief industrial and organisational psychologist at HireVue.

Can algorithms be trusted?

Platforms such as HireVue introduce a high level of automation into the recruitment process but are recruiters ready to trust AI to identify talent? Mondragon doesn’t believe the industry has crossed this “digital divide” yet: “We need to show that algorithms from a research perspective are more trustworthy than human judgement.” Unilever is one of HireVue’s clients and has used the platform to filter up to 80% of the candidate pool. Its criteria was to ensure that its process felt “human not robotic” and had to be “better and more efficient” at selecting candidates than an in-person interview. The system has helped reduce time-to-hire by 90%, increase new hire diversity by 16% and deliver £1m in savings.

What about bias?

Algorithms are unambiguous and don’t have grey areas so, in theory, can reduce bias in the recruitment process. They are based on human data, and so are fallible. Mondragon says it is important for developers to continually run manual and automated tests on software. HireVue regularly checks for bias in race, gender, age, culture and disability, as well as other areas that might be relevant to different countries. “For instance, our tools can identify and remove a datapoint that might be causing a male or female difference,” he says, adding that constant checks are important as the bias can return. The algorithms also understand that there can be traditional differences in how a person performs on certain exercises.

Change management

Bringing more predictive technologies into the recruitment process and shifting towards more to data-driven decision-making requires culture change. Mondragon believes it should be accompanied by a change management initiative. The message, says HireVue, is that it is “teamwork” between the algorithms and the recruiters that makes the decision. “Customers use the score to facilitate human judgement,” he says. “We want to stop them making a bad decision.”

WHAT DO ALGORITHMS DO IN RECRUITMENT?

Algorithms provide recruitment platforms with a scientific and step-by-step set of rules to follow to solve a problem, which typically in a recruitment context is to find the right candidate.

NEW TO THE MARKET: 11-15 FEBRUARY 2019

• US-based tech talent acquisition platform AmazingHiring has launched an AI-sourcing solution based on machine learning algorithms to enable users to find the right candidates more quickly. The solution allows users to choose the core skill or specialisation from a list and the AI technology will do the rest.

• Cambridge-based learning technology company Coracle Inside, which already provides its Digital Learning Platform to offenders in prison, has partnered with recruitment tech specialist Highr to create an online jobs board designed specifically to connect ex-offenders with job vacancies likely to be open to people with criminal records.

The Coracle Inside Jobs Board offers 200 jobs each week in London and up to 1,000 nationally at launch, with expansion plans to advertise more than 3,000 vacancies around the country before the end of the year. Jobs advertised on Coracle’s Jobs Board are generally semi-skilled roles in high-demand industries including construction, warehousing, social care and hospitality.

Vacancies in companies, which have signed up to the government-backed ‘Ban The Box’ and ‘Clean Sheet’ schemes designed to eliminate recruitment discrimination against ex-offenders, will be given prominence on the new jobs board. Coracle Inside has also built an algorithm to bring up additional vacancies in sectors known to be short of staff and looking to fill vacancies.

• Professional network LinkedIn is moving talent tools – Jobs, Recruiter and Pipeline Builder – onto a single platform. The move means recruiters will be able to see all their candidates, from whichever LinkedIn tool they’re coming from, in one unified pipeline.

LinkedIn added it is releasing more than 15 new product enhancements for LinkedIn Recruiter and Jobs over the next few quarters. New features include helping recruiters and their teams collaborate better, helping them to be more productive and providing them with smarter results.

• Property recruiter Lloyd May has launched property tech staffing specialist LMRE. Led by director Bradley Bartlett, LMRE’s core areas of focus will be within strategy & innovation, product development, software development and business development & marketing.

The culture assessment service, which can replace or complement employee engagement surveys, uses methodology to provide measurement, in-depth analysis and actionable recommendations so that organisations can build inspiring workplace cultures. It focuses on the six key elements of purpose, opportunity, success, appreciation, wellbeing and leadership which, following global research with 10,000 employees, O.C. Tanner discovered to be the building blocks of organisational culture.

• Midlands-based recruitment specialist SF Group has vowed to ditch all single-use plastic and turn to a more sustainable material – bamboo. SF Group has made the pledge as it launches its new name, brand and values this month.

Now known as SF Recruitment, the agency, which has offices in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham, has chosen bamboo to represent the values a recruiter needs to be successful and its drive to replace a wide variety of plastics being used throughout the business. The new tagline for SF Recruitment is ‘a natural fit’ – chosen to highlight the business’s philosophy on finding the perfect match between people and companies.

NEW TO THE MARKET: 4-8 FEBRUARY 2019

• The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has published new guidance to help prevent age discrimination at work. The new Acas advice includes guidance on recruitment, training, performance management and redundancy, and other areas where age discrimination is most likely to occur. Included in the guidance is a myth-busting document.

• Recruitment portal GoFindMe has launched. The portal focuses on a person’s skills and experience by anonymising the recruitment process, with the aim of enabling companies to hire top talent while breaking down barriers created by stereotyping.

• Global talent solutions business Morgan Philips Group has announced a number of changes to its UK business following its acquisition of the Hudson talent solutions business in the UK and Europe (excluding Benelux) in April 2018.

These include:

The launch of a new recruitment business, Fyte. Fyte uses digital tools such as video job descriptions and video CVs together with a focus on digital sourcing techniques including social recruiting and crowdsourcing.

The launch of Morgan Philips Executive Search.

Investments in its Morgan Philips Talent Consulting business with an emphasis on a new, bespoke assessment framework, digital assessment centre management and predictive talent analytics and investment in a new managed solutions offering designed to help organisations scale up digital project teams.

• Skillbase Contractor Management Services and Skillbase Consulting have rebranded under one brand – Skillbase Group. The group, which provides telco and IT contractor recruitment services to firms across Europe and across the world, adds it is opening an office in Galway, Republic of Ireland.

NEW TO THE MARKET: 28 JANUARY-1 FEBRUARY 2019

• The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Women and Work has launched a toolkit: ‘How to Recruit Women for the 21st Century’. The toolkit takes up a recommendation from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation to broaden the Apprenticeship Levy to be used as a Training and Skills Levy.

Through the system, which aims to have a 48-hour turnaround time, members can receive a written risk assessment of client terms, which provides clarity on the obligations, risks and liabilities included within the contract. The service is designed to help businesses either before a contract is signed, if deciding on accepting terms, or after, if they are seeking to audit existing liabilities.

Fees for this service are variable depending on the experience of the reviewer, whether the provider is a regulated law firm with associated benefits, and the length of the terms. APSCo has also today launched an IR35 guidance pack.

• Boardroom staffing specialist Camino Partners has opened a US division. The division, headed up by managing director Matt Newman, is being run from the firm’s London office until next year, when the firm expects to open an office in New York.

• HireRight, a provider of employment background checks, has rebranded. The rebrand includes a website and logo redesign and messaging around the business. The rebrand and messaging revolve around the firm’s core values of service-first mindset, sense of ownership, collaborative spirit and grounded in respect.

• Midlands-based recruiter Morgan Parkes Recruitment has launched a new website offering clients and candidates information about the agency, including latest vacancies, links to their social profiles, services offered and contact details.

• Reviewedo, a community-centric reviewing platform dedicated to the recruitment industry, has launched. According to founders Harrison Dark, Chris Ogunsola and Jack Carlisle, the site enables users to review both the recruitment agency and the recruitment consultant.

Other features the site offers is the ability for recruiters to collaborate and connect with clients and candidates; a new way to generate business and build businesses client base and a new way to receive business intelligence.

• Software as a service provider Rightcheck has launched the Right to Work UK: Ultimate Employer’s Guide of 2019, offering comprehensive information on the Right to Work for small businesses and employers.

• Technology staffing specialist Source Technology has opened an office in Los Angeles. Director Jack Marsh, who currently runs the agency’s technical engineering division, will be relocating from London to head up the office.

Los Angeles was chosen as the base for the US arm due to its proximity to the tech hub of Silicon Valley, good transport links with other key regions and a strong existing recruitment market to feed the internal recruitment need.

The Los Angeles office will focus on contract and permanent hiring into technical engineering and cyber security, both of which are experiencing high demand.

• Science, clinical and engineering recruiter SRG, an Impellam group company, has opened its first Irish office in Cork. Paul O’Brien has been appointed associate director to lead SRG in Ireland from the Cork office.

NEW TO THE MARKET: 21-25 JANUARY 2019

• Executive recruiter Bain and Gray has launched a candidate loyalty card for candidates commanding a salary of more than £30k. Holders of The Card, which is invitation only, will benefit from priority bookings and exclusive offers with a variety of high-end lifestyle brands, and a selection of perks for personal and business use.

• International creative, digital and media specialist staffing group Empresaria brand Become recruitment agency is opening offices in Brisbane, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.

• Career site reed.co.uk has partnered with multimedia messaging app Snapchat to release a ‘Love Mondays’ themed lens. The innovation, available to Snapchat’s audience of more than 16m daily users, is part of reed.co.uk’s repositioned brand advertising campaign, built around the headline, ‘That’s how it feels to Love Mondays’.

Targeted at 18-24-year-olds in the UK, the lens will be live on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays until mid-February.

• Multi-sector recruiter Service Care Solutions has undergone an expansion and renovation to its offices on Starkie Street, Preston. The number of employees has doubled since moving into the building in 2015.

SCS’s managing director Richard Freye says headcount is anticipated to grow by another 10% (to around 120) within the next few years. The building was renamed Arthur House, after Freye’s eight-year-old son, who fittingly cut the ribbon officially opening the revamped building.

• Zellis is the new name for payroll and human resources (HR) software and service provider NGA Human Resources UK & Ireland. Following the sale of the business in February 2018, NGA HR UK & Ireland has become a standalone company, fully separate from NGA Human Resources. As part of this change, the company has rebranded to Zellis.

NEW TO THE MARKET: 14-18 JANUARY 2019

The project, led by Ian Knowlson, employment futurist and owner of growth consultancy Selling Success, and San Sunner, founder of REC-Social, a social media management company that focuses on the talent recruitment sector, aims to achieve its objective through in-depth discussions with industry leaders across a variety of sectors.

The aim is that constructive debates, informative interviews and knowledge sharing with global thought leaders will provide a hub for business owners to assimilate fresh ideas in preparation for the future.

• German recruiter Hager Unternehmensberatung has opened a new location in the centre of Munich. The office is managed by business unit manager industrial, Hagen Schönfeld.

• Five health and social care employers – University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, LOROS Hospice, Rutland County Council and Leicester City Council – have launched Y/Our Future.

Y/Our Future is a new recruitment campaign for doctors, nurses, and health and social care workers to work in hospitals, hospices and in communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

The campaign aims to promote Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland as a leading career destination for health and social care professionals, with great career and lifestyle opportunities.